Looking for access AND ...

[Electrician 15]

So, I was looking for access to an area and spotted this weird site in the river bend 

 

 

[Electrician 15]

Then I zoomed in real close ... 

 

[chrisski 824]

I've seen a couple jeep caravans drive by, but certainly not that big.  I wonder if they were doing a photo shoot?

Also, with the four wheel access along well traveled creeks, I've seen the sand turn to impassable bedrock in some of the photos, but because its well travelled before and after the boulders, there's usually a way around, sometimes not easily viewable on google maps or the USGS maps.  Loneliest feeling in the world I had was for the few hours I was stuck in the creek with no one to pull me out.  I carry more to get free, but most places here do not have trees to tie a wench to, so most of  my gear like pull straps require me to have someone else.  Someday I plan on getting a wench and something like a pull pal.  Someone said all I have to do is to bury a spare tire three feet deep and that will allow me wench free.  I hope it never comes to that.

[Au Seeker 3,140]

14 minutes ago, chrisski said:

I've seen a couple jeep caravans drive by, but certainly not that big.  I wonder if they were doing a photo shoot?

Also, with the four wheel access along well traveled creeks, I've seen the sand turn to impassable bedrock in some of the photos, but because its well travelled before and after the boulders, there's usually a way around, sometimes not easily viewable on google maps or the USGS maps.  Loneliest feeling in the world I had was for the few hours I was stuck in the creek with no one to pull me out.  I carry more to get free, but most places here do not have trees to tie a wench to, so most of  my gear like pull straps require me to have someone else.  Someday I plan on getting a wench and something like a pull pal.  Someone said all I have to do is to bury a spare tire three feet deep and that will allow me wench free.  I hope it never comes to that.

Get yourself a land anchor, or build one.

[chrisski 824]

58 minutes ago, Au Seeker said:

Get yourself a land anchor, or build one. 

Thanks for the design.

On ‎6‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 4:37 AM, Electrician said:

I found this.  I usually cross about three miles north of there.  Before you head out there, there's a Hassanyumpa travel management plan that has shut a lot of the roads down to motorized traffic.  I tried finding a copy, but no luck.  One of the potential claims I spent a while researching had a BLM "road closed sign" about a mile away from the site.  A lot of these closed roads were the old washed out trails with real rough going.  I did hike in but I found nothing worth warranting going back to that particular claim myself: no gold but plenty of copper mineralization in the rocks.  There's some lithium claims going in that area.  I hope they actually start to produce.

Those trucks are parked on state trust land.  It's mostly tate trust land and private property where you've got the phot, but if you go to the North and West, there's plenty of BLM land.

Edited June 30, 2019 by chrisski

[Electrician 15]

Land anchors are seriously EXPENSIVE for what they are. Delta or Fluke BOAT anchors work just as well, and are priced under $100 US. 

[Electrician 15]

40 minutes ago, chrisski said:

It's mostly state trust land and private property where you've got the photo, but if you go to the North and West, there's plenty of BLM land.

Not sure if you could see it in the first photo, but center vertical of the image and just to the right of center; there are 2 (two) really, really old horseshoe bends in the river bed.

 

[Electrician 15]

[adam 3,123]

58 minutes ago, Electrician said:

but center vertical of the image and just to the right of center; there are 2 (two) really, really old horseshoe bends in the river bed

Good eye, and that may very well be or not. Do you plan on digging the 17.5 feet to bedrock in those areas ?  Are you going to sit on this for the summer and follow up later?

[clay 993]

33 minutes ago, Electrician said:

Those are Holocene sand deposits 60 foot above the river on the other side of  a Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene unconsolidated gravel ridge. Essentially that means they are very recent sand deposits separated from the river course by a much older deposit. Being that older deposit is unconsolidated means that the river hasn't passed that way before. That sand did not come from the Hassayampa.

As Chris pointed out what you are showing on these maps are private and State Trust lands. They are also nearly barren of any worthwhile mineral deposits. Just to the north and west are dacite rhyolite deposits dating from the Oligocene to Middle Miocene and nearby phyllite schist dating to the Early Proterozoic. Those formations have produced considerable paying ground and continue to be drilled and mined for valuable minerals. North on the river San Domingo, Ox and Little San Domingo washes enter the Hassayampa - those are all historically rich placers. Those lands are for the most part managed by the BLM and open to location wherever there are not already claimed and being mined.

Your choice - Home Depot sand quality or real mineralization that has paid off in the past and continues to produce. Oh wait - it's not your choice because the sand deposits you are seeing aren't open to prospecting or location. Nothing wrong with studying the area but the geology and the land status are both telling you there is nothing there to see.

If you want to access the area just take Gates road off Hwy 60 across from the Morristown Post Office and turn left when you reach the river (it's a huge sand pit - you can't miss it). If you want to go down the river to those State Lands get a State recreation pass or risk getting run off or ticketed. The river bottom makes a good road if you know how to drive in deep sand/gravel and have a vehicle up to the task.

[Electrician 15]

Clay,

I am NOT a miner looking to stake claims on "precious" state land. Nor am I looking to piss in your backyard Clay. 

I have my state land passes, PAID in FULL. I already have multiple access points mapped out and plugged into my GPS. This isn't my first time out on the Hassayampa. I was riding out there before the state went all nazi black boot about access to PUBLIC land.

No matter the composition of those deposits, I am disagreeing with you on HOW the current topography were formed. They are clearly horseshoe bends, both of them, cut by the Hassayampa at some point and are now weathered. If you zoom out and follow the waters natural course, it clearly shows it hits multiple obstructions and meanders into those horseshoe bends.

There's plenty to see out there. The USGS maps show this, so do all the previous BLM claims to these areas. No one, including the nazi state, spends the time and money to stake claims on worthless ground.

Again, I'm not a miner looking to stake claims. I am heading out to practice my geology and have some fun.

[adam 3,123]

15 minutes ago, Electrician said:

I have my state land passes

Oh man..., how many passes are there? 

Edited June 30, 2019 by adam

[Electrician 15]

23 minutes ago, adam said:

Oh man..., how many passes are there? 

TYPES OF RECREATIONAL PERMITS/ TERMS/ FEES

For more information select

TYPE	TERM	FEES
Individual Permits	1 Year	$15.00
Family Permits	1 Year	$20.00
Non-Competitive/ Non-Commercial Group Permit * Less than 20 people	Less than 5 Days	$15.00

 

https://land.az.gov/natural-resources/recreational-permits

[clay 993]

47 minutes ago, Electrician said:

Clay,

This isn't my first time out on the Hassayampa. I was riding out there before the state went all nazi black boot about access to PUBLIC land.

Looks like I need to put on my educator hat.

Arizona State Trust Lands have never been public land. See:

• Arizona Enabling Act Section 25.
• Arizona State Constitution Article 10 Section 1.

47 minutes ago, Electrician said:

No one, including the nazi state, spends the time and money to stake claims on worthless ground.

That is truly funny. Many many people have spent time and money on worthless mining claims in Arizona and elsewhere. Past or current mining claims should never be seen as an indication of a paying deposit or even the existence of mineralization. Very few mining claims ever even pay enough to earn gas money or their annual fees.

Mining claims are located for many different reasons and many different minerals. For instance mining claims could be located for sand or gravel before July 1955. Sand and gravel etc. claims made before then are still valid today as long as the required annual record and filing has been made. Yeah - sand claims, imagine that.

Arizona State is barred by Federal and State law from locating mining claims. See:

• 1872 General Mining Act Section 1
• Arizona Enabling Act Section 20

[chrisski 824]

It'd be interesting to see what its like boots on the ground compared to the satellite imagery.  There's a couple of places local to there I thought I'd found an ancient bench by looking at satellite photos, but boots on the ground showed otherwise.  Never really found the river gravels I was expecting in these benches and they turned out in my case to be an inch or two of dirt on top of basalt.

The Hassunyumpa area is a fun area to go to.

There are people who stake worthless claims locally and then turn around and sell them for thousands of dollars on sites like E-Bay.  People see these E-Bay claims and stake ground around it. I think there's in excess of 100,000 claims, maybe 300,000 claims nationwide and I think 1 in 100 is probably worth the money.